Behavioral Conditioning Gets in the Way
by Uozumi
Summary: Danny's not oblivious to Steve's conditioned behavioral code, but that does not mean he'll make the first move.


**Fandom** _Hawaii Five-0_ (2010)  
**Character(s)/Pairing(s)** Danny, Steve; pre-Danny/Steve  
**Genre** Drama/Pre-Slash/Romance-ish  
**Rating** PG  
**Word Count** 1086  
**Disclaimer** Hawaii Five-0 c. CBS  
**Summary** Danny's not oblivious to Steve's conditioned behavioral code, but that does not mean he'll make the first move.  
**Warning(s)** spoilers up through season one episode fourteen, mild language  
**Notes** As promised for the lovely retail_daze, illfindmyway, and huntress69.

_**Behavioral Conditioning Gets in the Way**_

They were driving back from a case when it happened again. Steve was doing nothing, just driving the damn car. It was night and the streetlights shone in with enough frequency, Danny could not drift off properly in the passenger seat. His mind was wandering as it always did in these types of sleep-deprived situations. Bits and pieces of open and closed cases ran through Danny's head. He was vaguely encouraging a daydream where that Wo Fat guy from the golf course and a few other locations as of late was dressed as Gene Wilder's version of Willy Wonka. Only the suit was sleek and the gold shirt was shiny with the first two buttons unbuttoned. Just as the governor was turning into the largest purple ball of anything one could imagine, Steve interjected into the silence, "You can stay the night you know."

"I know," Danny answered after a moment. "I know, but I should head home anyway." They were already at the turn off of the highway to Steve's house where Danny would take over the driver's seat to take his car back to his rundown residence.

"Alright, your call." Steve looked like the matter was finished.

Danny's mind added it to a long growing evidence list in his head. He started the list back when Grace offhandedly commented Danny talked about Steve more than he talked about any other person. It was the first sign. Growing up, Danny could not keep his romantic interests secret from his family. Before he realized his own infatuations himself, he would talk trusted people's ears off about the person in question. It had been that way with this tomboy in his fourth grade class, a cheerleader in middle and high school, and it had been that way with Rachel. At least those were the ones his brother teased him about and his mother would ask him about, trying to dig out information. There was one other instance that his brother and mother never acknowledged as a crush despite it following the course of all other infatuations in Danny's life. Before he joined the force, about junior year of high school, there had been this guy. There was experimentation but they lost contact after the guy went on to university and Danny went from odd job to odd job until he found the police force. His brother was away at university at the time and his mother probably did not want to admit such a thing could be happening to herself, let alone encourage Danny and the relationship.

Danny knew the invitation to stay the night was not a come on from Mr. Last Action Hero Steve McGarrett, but he knew it was a foothold if Danny accepted. Steve always gave him footholds to take or discard and for at least the first three months of knowing each other, Danny did not notice at all. Of course, Steve called him Danno, but that was just him being an ass. There were the tickets to the hotel for Danny and Grace, but that was an olive branch. What first caught Danny's attention after Grace noted how much he spoke about Steve happened when Danny re-injured his knee.

He was resting and trying to catch up on sleep in the early evening hours that day. Someone rang the doorbell for a reason Danny never found out because he rolled right out of bed and onto his feet, putting his knee at an awkward angle. The pain in that moment was so great he almost could not see straight. He did not have any athletic tape in his first aid kit and his knee-brace was in a box that probably went to Rachel in the divorce, because that seemed to be where all the things he ever needed went. When he opened his phone, everyone name indicated their phone was off except for Steve, so begrudgingly Danny sent him a text to pick up enough athletic tape to bandage a knee when it suited him and bring it over. Danny would pay him back, so bring the receipt.

Steve showed up not half an hour later with a slip-on bandage knee brace and mysteriously had no receipt. Danny could still remember that look Steve gave his knee when he saw the condition it was in that evening. The look was fleeting, but concerned in a way Danny could not place at the time, but saw Steve use with Mary and for a longer duration when Chin had the bomb strapped to his neck since then. That look caused Danny to rethink things and consider what Steve was trying to say to him. He started testing the water, adding babe and Steven into his lexicon of Steve synonyms when he wanted to tease or get back at the former SEAL.

So, here they were in the car months later. Steve had actually called him "baby" at a scene the other week ago. There was all this extended hand, opened door moments. Yet, Danny remained cautious. He was an investigator for a living and even with all the evidence amounting that maybe Steve was trying some sort of weird naval lingo on him, Danny knew better than to bite.

Steve pulled the car into the driveway and got out, taking the keys with him. Danny got out of the passenger side and walked around, holding his hand out for the keys. "I don't live that far away. Besides, my bed is better than your couch."

"There are two bedrooms in this house I don't use you know." Steve handed the keys over.

Danny took them. All he could hear was the ocean in the distance and the bugs that came to Hawaii once shipping really got underway on the island decades ago. "I'm not sleeping in your sister's childhood bed." He stretched slightly. "Besides, I've got Grace starting tomorrow," he paused to realize that it was well past midnight, "later today, so I have to make sure everything's in order anyway." He moved around Steve and opened the door to the driver's seat. Danny paused and looked at Steve a long moment. "You know, if you have something to tell me, you can tell me, babe." He let the statement linger a few seconds and then got into the car and started it back up.

He had confidence in his conclusions about Steve, but Danny did not want to make the first move with someone who could only give him footholds and hints.

**The End**


End file.
